Taunton man sentenced to up to four years in child abuse case

Tuesday

Apr 15, 2014 at 7:48 PMApr 16, 2014 at 6:48 AM

Charles Winokoor Taunton Gazette Staff Reporter @cwinokoor

Despite letters from friends and relatives describing him as a generous and compassionate man, Taunton resident Roland Hill was sentenced by a Fall River Superior Court judge on Monday to two and a half to four years in state prison for indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.

Judge Lloyd MacDonald also sentenced Hill to two and a half years to run concurrently in a house of correction for his conviction of reckless endangerment of a child — and ordered five years probation upon his release, the latter for his having been found guilty of two counts of assault and battery.

Hill, 50, had been held without bail the past two weeks pending sentencing after being convicted by a jury of sexually and physically abusing a girl in 2008.

The girl, along with two brothers, lived with Hill and his wife Mary in a foster-care arrangement.

Hill also was convicted of a single count of reckless endangerment of a child regarding the girl and two counts of assault and battery in relation to the boys.

Prosecutor Sylvia Rudman asked that Hill be sent to state prison for five to 10 years with a concurrent sentence of two and a half years in a house of correction.

Rudman said Hill failed in his capacity to serve as guardian to the girl, who was not present in the courtroom during sentencing.

All three children are part of the extended family of Hill and his wife.

Rudman said Hill’s behavior was all the more egregious, because he was aware the girl previously suffered “significant sexual and physical trauma” in a household where she lived before moving into Hill’s Eldridge Street home.

Rudman said the teenager decided not to issue a victim-impact statement and instead wants to move on with her life.

The trial, Rudman said, had “divided the family completely” so that the girl is “even more alone” than before.

The Fall River jury acquitted Roland Hill of the more serious charge of assault with intent to rape and convicted him of just one of two counts of assault and battery. When arrested in 2009 Hill initially was charged with three counts of aggravated rape.

A single count of child endangerment against Mary Hill was dropped in 2011 when the district attorney’s office decided not to go to trial.

Krowski noted Hill had the “strong support” of his local community and various members of his family, including the “full support” of his wife, to whom he’s been married since age 17.

The couple has three children.

Krowski stressed that prior to his 2009 arrest Hill had never been “arrested, convicted or accused” of a crime.

He cited examples of Hill’s selfless generosity as owner of commercial and residential properties in Taunton. In one instance, Krowski said, Hill provided an apartment for three homeless men.

“He would do anything for anybody and bent over backwards for his tenants,” Krowski said.

In another case, Krowski said Hill once paid for and delivered a washer and dryer to a waitress at Off Broadway Diner where Mary Hill worked.

The owner of that downtown business, Krowski added, was one of many individuals who wrote letters to the court in support of Hill.

Krowski claimed Hill has worked his whole life since the age of 10, has never been fired from a job and has a track record of providing emotional and psychological support to his relatives.

Krowski told the judge everything his client has strived to establish financially for his family is now in jeopardy of “falling apart at the seams.”

He also stressed that Hill already has paid a price in terms of his reputation in Taunton and, because of the nature of the crimes, will undoubtedly be treated harshly by some of his fellow prison inmates.

“It’s a lot harsher than most folks realize,” Krowski said of a state prison sentence.

MacDonald said sentencing a defendant with no prior criminal record is “especially difficult.”

He added that he “carefully reviewed” the letters describing Hill as a decent person who exhibited kindness to neighbors and others.

But the judge noted the “aggravated nature” of the case and pointed out how evidence presented at trial suggested that the girl — who lived at the Hill house from the age of 12 to 14 — had been “horribly abused by her natural parents” before moving in with Roland and Mary Hill.

MacDonald acknowledged that the court “was concerned with certain aspects of testimony,” specifically the girl’s recollection of specific events.

But notwithstanding such considerations he noted how the jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, found Hill guilty of sexually abusing the girl at least on one occasion and were also convinced that the abuse might have been long-term.

Hill will have to register as a sex offender after being released and undergo sex-abuse counseling. MacDonald ordered him to stay away from the victim unless she initiates a meeting, but said Hill won’t need permission to visit the girl’s brother, whom he was convicted of assaulting.

The judge said Hill won’t be allowed to live with a child under the age of 16, but he denied the state’s request that he not be permitted to visit a person under the age of 16 without adult supervision.

Before being led out of the courtroom, Hill was allowed to embrace his wife and other members of his family who cried and hugged him.

Krowski issued a harsh assessment of the case.

“The real story here is don’t take in foster children,” said Krowski, who said the female victim’s “story changed like the wind” during her testimony.

Krowski said the legal system has become such that volunteering as a Big Brother or foster parent can be risky to well-meaning adults.

“You’re putting yourself in a position of peril,” he said.

Hill made headlines in 2009, not just because of his arrest, but because of the events the next day when police say he drove around the city stealing hundreds of copies of the Taunton Daily Gazette once he realized he would be the subject of a front-page story.